


The Demon in the Details

by SalParadiseLost



Series: The Demon in the Details [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Brother Acquisition, Angst, Brotherly Bonding, Demon Jason Todd, Demon Tim Drake, Demons, Dick is Giving Hugs, Enemy to Caretaker, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Human Dick Grayson, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Incubi, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Pack Dynamics, Resurrected Jason Todd, Siblings, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Too much demonic lore for a one shot, Touch-Starved, aka the fun batkid upbringings, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29278032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalParadiseLost/pseuds/SalParadiseLost
Summary: Jason breaks into the Titans Tower with the intent to kill his Replacement. He doesn't expect to find a starving demon that doesn't even realise he's an incubus.He really doesn't expect to start taking care of the kid.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Series: The Demon in the Details [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151114
Comments: 63
Kudos: 691
Collections: Red Hood vs Red Robin





	The Demon in the Details

**Author's Note:**

  * For [I_Write_Midnight_Snacks (Pink_and_Purple_Daisies)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_and_Purple_Daisies/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Body heat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29189970) by [I_Write_Midnight_Snacks (Pink_and_Purple_Daisies)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_and_Purple_Daisies/pseuds/I_Write_Midnight_Snacks). 



> This is a complete gift fic to Daisy who gave me a wonderful demon au, which inspired this work and graciously let me run with the idea. She's so nice and has been to joy to talk to!
> 
> Please also read the work that inspired this one. It's wonderful and you won't regret it.

Jason chose a crescent moon night to break into the Titans Tower. He thought it was poetic, looking up and seeing that knife slice of yellow on the black sky. A single ragged tear in the murk, vicious and thin like the line he would cut in his Replacement’s throat.

Maybe, when all this was over, Bruce would see a crescent moon and think of broken birds. Maybe then, it would remind him about the dangers of letting birds fly with the bats, and he would finally stop throwing them into the sky.

He had been so stupid for thinking that Robin could be magic, and he had learned his lesson between crowbar beats.

Robin wasn’t power. It was a deal with the devil, and he didn’t have to be demon to recognise that.

Bruce, though, apparently hadn’t seen the same thing.

Now, it was up to Jason to get the message across.

Bypassing the Tower’s security had been easy. He still had Dick’s codes and the building accepted them with a chirpy jingle. The automatic doors swished open, practically begging him inside. It took a couple moments to cut off the communications in the Tower, plunging it into isolation.

Avoiding the rest of the Titans was a non-issue as none of them were there. He had tracked the Titans movements for weeks. They cycled through the Tower is a fairly predictable pattern if you watched closely enough and Jason was an excellent watcher.

He simply waited for one of the rare, but predictable nights that the Replacement would be alone in the Tower and he walked right in.

The kid didn’t even have someone to scream for when he melted out of the darkness.

“Hello,” he purred, voice slipping into something smooth and dangerous. The voice modulator on his helmet made the sound even deeper and more menacing.

The kid shivered, hands almost imperceptibly tightening on his bo staff.

An interesting weapon choice that stunk of Dick. It would be hopeless against the gun in his hand, though.

“Who are you?” the Replacement demanded. It would have been fierce, if his voice hasn’t wobbled on the end of the question.

“Good question,” Jason stalked forward, and Tim met the movement with steps back. He brandished his little stick, trying to keep Jason at a distance. Neither of them missed how the defence also left him cornered. “I thought you were the smart one.”

He lunged forward a step, and it was enough to make his Replacement flinch and slam his back into the wall behind him.

The kid quivered in fear like a scared little Robin.

Jason laughed, the sound dark and rolling in the empty tower. Oh, it was delicious to see the fear written on the baby bird’s face. To see the terror rise in his eyes when he realised that he was trapped and no one was coming.

To see that fear reflected in someone else instead of endlessly replaying in Jason’s dreams.

It was good to be the one in control for once, and it made that crawling green fury in Jason’s stomach flicker in delight. It was a fire that constantly burned in Jason, and now it was finally time for it to be fed.

“I don’t understand,” Tim growled, but it paled in comparison to Jason’s menace. Then again, a human would never ever compare to a demon in the category of striking fear. “What did I do to you?”

“It isn’t what you did,” Jason said, fury leaking into the words, “It’s what you took.” And slowly, he brought up his hands, removing the helmet from his head. He took his time, basking in his big reveal. He was happy to watch his Replacement’s eyes widen in shock and feel the mix of astonishment and horror in the air.

“Jason?” The boy’s voice was like glass, thin and breakable. “But you’re dead?”

“It didn’t take.” He smiled, fangs flashing the dark. His eyes glowed in vicious, emerald anger, a demonic trait taken to the extreme. “Don’t you know there are all types of rumours about demons being able to come back from the dead.”

False rumours. Old wives’ tales from when demons were still mythical things. They said that demons could go to hell and talk their way back, but he knew it wasn’t true. Flawed superstitions hadn’t helped him when he was curled on the ground broken and bleeding.

In the end, he had died just like everyone else, and there was no bargaining with his devil, not between the laughs and the swings.

“Jason, oh my god, Bruce will be so happy that you’re alive.” His Replacement was lowering the staff, fear melting away. The air was losing its sting of terror.

And now that wouldn’t do.

Jason leapt forward and knocked the staff from the kid’s hands. In a quick motion, he tossed it away and it clattered against the wall in the opposite end of the room. Jason smiled, and it wasn’t a happy smile.

The fear revived itself in the Replacement’s gaze.

“Jason?” His voice wavered, and he tried to back up, only hitting the wall again. The kid’s spine ground against the hard material.

“Now, you and me we’re going to send a message to good old Bats.” Jason flicked a knife out of his pocket, and the blade gleamed as much as his fangs. “It’s a message about what happens when you let birds fly on their own. Especially when one was already put in the ground.”

He was growling, unable to keep the anger out of his voice. Tim jerked and tried to kick Jason’s feet out from under him, but Jason blocked and easily caught the boy’s wrist.

His smile widened. He was ready to feel that fear and feed on the emotion. He was ready to delight in the human’s delicious terror, pain turned into his pleasure.

But instead of pure and delicious _human_ emotion, a sense of _demonic_ loneliness slammed into him like a blow to the gut.

“What the fuck,” he cursed, dropping the boy’s limb like it hurt him.

His eyes flickered between his own hand and the boy’s terror-stricken face. Another incubus? But how?

He sniffed, searching for the subtle traces of sulphur and scent that demons found in each other. And, sure enough, there it was— sulphur (like any demon), but mixed with the cinnamon and rose that marked the boy as another incubus. It was so faint that Jason had completely overlooked it.

So subtle that he had mistook the boy for a human.

“Oh, that’s rich,” he hissed, advancing forward again and the kid just curled back on himself. “Bruce didn’t just replace me. He found some kind of, half-starved impling to take my place. I guess one dead demon wasn’t enough for him, huh?”

Emotions warred on the kid’s face. Shock, fear and disbelief all pulling against each other. Finally, it settled on confusion.

“I’m not a demon,” he said, holding his wrist close to his chest like it had been burned.

Jason snorted and the sound was ugly. “And I’m dead.”

The impling’s confusion didn’t leave his face and realisation was starting to trickle down Jason’s spine. “You’re kidding me,” he said flatly.

His Replacement’s face didn’t waver, and Jason’s instincts were beginning to edge forward. “Kid, you’re an incubus just like me. Ya’ know, a demon that feeds on emotion and human contact. Ringing any bells?”

“I know what an incubus is,” his Replacement snapped and it kinda looked like a kitten baring its fangs. “I just don’t see how it has anything to do with me.”

Jason looked at him for a long time. He could see it now. The faint scent, the almost imperceptible aura that followed all demons, the small peak of fangs in his snarl. The kid was definitely an incubus, but just an impling on the cusp of growing into a full-grown demon.

Which was wrong because the kid should be way past that point at his age. His intel told him that Timothy Drake was sixteen, which by most demonic growth charts meant he should be pretty much grown into his traits.

So why was there a starved impling in front of him that barely looked different than a human?

“You’re not shitting me, are you?” Jason said, realisation coiling uncomfortably in his stomach and protective instincts rising. He was trying to squash them down, but demons were pack animals. The part of him that still thought of Bruce as pack. The part that Jason thought had died with him in a roar of fire and crumbling warehouse, came back to life.

_Impling. Hurt. Pack._

His breath caught in his chest and he fought to keep the warring emotions from showing on his face. Every demon had instincts. It was part of them, as inherent as their species’ skills or their unique personalities. They created bonds. They protected their own. Incubi especially were extremely social with their need for contact and feeding on emotion.

Bruce and Dick had never felt it because they were humans, but they had accepted it. Once Jason explained incubi social dynamics, they had enthusiastically embraced the bonds, tying themselves to the demon in a way that humans wouldn’t normally allow. They taught themselves how to feel and become a pack for Jason in a way that he thought he’d never have again once his mom died. Humans were supposed to hate being tied to demons, but Bruce and Dick hadn’t even bat an eye to binding themselves to Jason.

They had become what he needed.

And all of that had broken when he died, tearing their bonds apart and leaving them ragged in Jason’s chest. His instincts, which he had lived by all his life were just _gone,_ leaving him aching and hollow.

Waking up and feeling that broken bond, that had hurt more than the crowbar blows ever could.

But eventually, he got used to it. Talia’s training was hard and left him exhausted. The endless repeat of killing for her, taught him to forget about his lost instincts and embrace the sick satisfaction of human pain. He didn’t let himself think about how hollow and empty it left him.

He shouldn’t be able to _feel_ , but here he was; instincts alive and vibrant in his chest and bonds beginning to thinly cord themselves back together.

For the first time since he had been resurrected, he felt like he was living again.

He stumbled, knees going weak under him. He blearily looked around, finding a place on the floor and sitting down heavily. His chest was a jumble of green fury swallowed by newly alive instincts and it felt like he might burst at any moment.

In the corner of his eye, he saw his Replacement begin to approach, small and curious, like an impling through and through.

“Are you alright?” he asked, and the question made Jason snort.

“Seriously kid, you’re asking me that? I thought it was pretty obvious that I came to kill you.”

“You didn’t though,” the impling said with a precocious tilt of his head. Like he hadn’t been cowering away from the older demon moments ago. “And now you look like shit.”

That drew a thin laugh from Jason. “Yeah, well, I’m going through a lot here.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. The impling’s gaze didn’t waver from him and he kept staring with those too-huge blue eyes.

This was not how Jason imagined this evening going.

_Pack. Help. Impling._

His instincts sang and he could have snarled at them. He was supposed to be here to kill the kid, but he felt the cold anger within himself slipping.

“Okay, let’s get a few things straight,” Jason said, already regretting this. It would have been so much easier if his instincts stayed dead and he had killed the kid. “You’re a demon”

“No, I am not,” the impling snapped immediately and Jason rolled his eyes.

“Here touch my hand. That will prove it to you.” Jason reached out a hand, offering it to the impling.

For a second, Tim looked like he was going to bolt. But he held back, then eventually approached, hesitant like a scared dog. When he got within arms-reach, he reached out, gingerly taking Jason’s hand.

Instantly, Jason felt his instincts swell, filling the empty place in his heart he forgot he had.

He watched the boy’s eyes widen, transfixed on their clasped hands and the feelings that the touch was bringing forth. All the doubts that the kid was a demon banished from Jason’s head.

He could feel the kid. Like really, demonically feel him, with their shared emotions bouncing across. The bonds inside him rapidly built up, recognising the ties he had to the kid by both of them being in the Wayne pack. They didn’t have a bond between them per se, but he felt it being to develop, fast-tracked by sharing a pack leader.

He was about to break the touch, cutting the bond before it could really begin to take shape, but he stopped when suddenly a whole new sensation slammed into him.

Tim was _taking_ his emotion, feeding on him and reflecting pleasure back.

Jason’s eyes widened and he watched the kid sigh in what must have been relief at being fed. Which was… impossible…

Incubi didn’t feed on other incubi, not at Tim’s age. They fed off human emotion for a reason— they couldn’t produce the energy provided by the emotions themselves.

Feeding off another demon… it was something reserved for the very youngest who were still in their parents’ arms and unable to safely make contact with humans. They grew out of it quickly, though, as they rapidly eclipsed the needs another incubi could provide.

Tim should have been past this point by the time he was walking. Then, why was he desperately feeding off Jason, acting like it was the first meal he had ever received?

The pieces started to click in Jason’s head and they painted a startling picture. Tim hadn’t known he was a demon, let alone an incubus. He didn’t have his demonic traits like his eyes or his fangs. He was feeding off of Jason in a way that he should have outgrown long ago.

_Impling. Protect. Young. Young. YOUNG._

His instincts screamed at him and for once he didn’t fight them. He lunged forward, gathering the impling to his chest and pressing them close together. He pulled them to the floor, curling Tim into his lap. The kid whimpered against him, gathering the fabric of his shirt in a small fist.

“What is this?” Tim whispered, his voice wet with emotion and shock.

Jason squeezed him tighter, feeling the potential bond solidifying. “This is feeding, kid. You’re eating.”

The kid was deathly still. “I’m eating what?”

Jason felt something in him break with pity. “You’re eating emotion because you’re an incubus.”

“Oh,” the kid’s voice was small, “it’s nice.”

Jason pet the side of Tim’s head, twining fingers in the soft strands. “Yeah,” he whispered “it is.”

Jason knew this couldn’t go on forever. He hadn’t been at a full emotion tank when he had broken into the Tower and the kid was rapidly eating through his stores. He would need more, the type of more that another demon couldn’t provide.

With a groan, he realised who he was going to have to call. The only human he knew loved hugging _more_ than an incubus.

“Hey, baby bird,” he nudged the kid in his arms. Tim murmured and moved uncoordinatedly.

 _Feeling-drunk_ , Jason realised with a mental chuckle. Common for little implings that didn’t know how to handle the emotional fire hydrant that was the rush of feeding. “Can I have your phone?”

The kid fumbled, before slipping the device into his hand. “It don’t work,” he mumbled, words running together.

Jason tapped the device, by passing the internal software he had set up to shut down the phone. He had done an impressive job if he did say so himself. Eventually, the phone chirped to life and he scrolled the contacts until he found the name he was searching for.

He took a breath before doing something he _knew_ he would regret.

He called Dick Grayson.

The phone rang, breaking the delicate silence, before Dick picked up on the second ring.

“Hey Timmy!” Dick said in that overly obnoxious cheer of his. “What’s up?”

“I have your smallest bird,” Jason growled, and he felt the newly reformed bond with Dick instantly ring with alarm. For sure, the human wouldn’t have felt it unless he was focusing on Jason’s bond for some reason.

If he still kept the bond at all.

Dick had probably pushed it away and forgotten about it once Jason died. The thought of Dick neglecting the bond hurt him more than he would like to admit.

“Who are you? Where’s Tim?” Dick’s voice was as hard as steel, and Jason had to force himself not to break the act.

“Oh, I’m a friend.” He made his voice cruel, like he had done when he pounced on Tim. But this time it didn’t feel strong. It was vile. “I’m just helping a bird with a broken wing.”

There was a gasp on the other line and Dick growled. “It you have hurt him—”

“Why don’t you come and find out? And be quick about it, cause I might start plucking feathers if I get bored.” Jason countered. Tim squirmed in his arms, settling into a more comfortable position with a sigh. “I’m with the baby bird in his Tower. Come alone. No weapons. Or else the bird might lose more than just a wing.”

He cut the line before Dick could snarl out his next threat. He knew the man would be coming, probably with the Bat in tow at a safe distance.

Which was… Jason didn’t know how he was going to deal with that. Just feeling the bonds was almost too much, but seeing his packmates too…

What if they rejected him? What if they took the newly formed bonds and tore them to shreds, breaking Jason all over again. What if they were disgusted by him like humans should be to demons?

God, he had come here to kill the impling and had threatened the kid to Dick. Of course, they were going to reject him, and he would go right back to living as a hollow, furious walking corpse.

“You sounded scary,” Tim murmured from his arms, the impling giving a stuttering and obviously unpracticed purr. It was a baby sound and one that Jason hadn’t heard in years. Unconsciously, he answered with a rumble, a purr turned deep with age.

“But you’re good. I feel it here,” Tim whispered pointing to his own chest and to Jason’s. “Scary, but good. Very good. Robin.”

Jason’s breath caught in his chest and he couldn’t bring himself to draw it out. He wasn’t Robin. Tim had taken it. But more than that, he didn’t deserve it. Not when he came back from the dead so obviously wrong— a demon without their bonds or their instincts, a body without a soul.

He couldn’t help the tears that rolled down his cheek, silent and salty. He watched them roll on to the floor as the impling slept in his arms and his older brother closed in on them.

***

He felt the jump in Dick’s bond before he realised that Nightwing had found them. Damn, he must have really been out of it for Dick to get the jump on him.

But who could blame him with an impling feeding off of him and sapping away the last bits of his energy.

Dick crept up to them, obviously expecting blood, but freezing when he saw Jason and Tim wrapped in a hug.

Jason also froze, caught in the sight of his older brother. Dick looked… Dick looked how he looked in Jason’s imagination. Strong, unmovable, and effortlessly perfect in every way possible. An ideal that Jason could never live up to. Everything that Jason should be, but so hopelessly unattainable that Jason knew he was stupid for trying.

He looked the same as he always did. Completely unaffected by Jason’s death, still as golden and shining as he always was.

Hell, maybe he even looked better. Maybe Jason’s death had done that shit that people always said about trauma and how it “made him a stronger person for it”.

Figures it would be Dick to come out better from Jason’s death.

Had he even mourned Jason? Had he felt the bond between them unravel into nearly nothing?

Or had he just moved on?

Jason watched his brother’s face shudder with shock and the barely-there bond between flashed with _Confusion. Hurt. Disbelief._

Jason wasn’t sure he could untangle Dick’s emotions from his own.

“Hey, Dickface,” Jason said over Tim’s head, making the boy slowly wake up. The human was still frozen twenty feet away from them, unreadable behind the domino mask. It was strange to see Dick so still and it made Jason feel like he was about to jump out of his skin.

“Dick,” Tim murmured, uncurling from Jason and eyes lighting up as he saw the vigilante. “Jason’s alive.”

Something about the boy’s words made Dick suddenly unfreeze and crouch lower into what Jason recognised as an attack position.

“Who are you?” he growled, ready to launch himself at Jason and tear Tim away.

Jason’s heart was breaking in his chest, and he didn’t know whether to dump the impling and flee or to give into the instincts that were urging him to bury himself in Dick’s arms. In the end, he decided on snark.

“It’s been a while Dickiebird, but it hasn’t been that long.” Jason tried to sneer, but the sound came out all wrong and plaintive.

Dick reared back, hurt and hope flashing through his body and making the air fill with the clash of the emotions. Then, suddenly like a tidal wave, the room filled with cold fury.

“Stop it.” Dick hissed, the sound so dangerous that it made both of the demons flinch. “Let Tim go and show me who you really are. Only cowards hide behind the face of a dead boy.”

Jason probably would have run if it were not for Tim’s warm presence grounding him to the floor. He needed to get out of here, though. He needed to drop the kid and go because this was all too much, and Dick didn’t believe he was here and…

His breath was coming too quick and he was having a hard time making his lungs function. He needed to breathe, but he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t even get the air in his chest to try to breathe.

In the distance, he heard Tim speaking, low and urgently.

“…it, you’re scaring Jason. Jason, please it’s okay. It’s just Dick. He’s okay. You’re safe. It’s okay.” Tim gave a small impling whine, that helped Jason focus back on him.

God. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. This wasn’t how any of this was supposed to go.

There was a clatter, and Jason whipped his head up to see Dick’s escrima sticks rolling away from him on the floor. In a quick motion, Dick reached and tugged his domino mask off, revealing watery blue eyes that looked a second away from crying.

“Jay?” he said, his voice was glasslike hope. “Little Wing?”

A sob caught in Jason’s throat and he had to fight to keep it down. He took a deep breath and then nodded. “Yeah, it’s me.”

For a moment, no one moved and then suddenly, Dick was launching across the room, capturing both of them in a tight hug.

Instantly, Jason felt his instincts sigh in relief and the bond between them slam into the forefront of his mind. The bond that had been so weak was instantaneously transformed into the vibrant, strong as steel link that Jason remembered it being right before he died.

The force of it made a fearful part of Jason shatter and he just let himself be held.

“Jaybird. You’re alive,” Dick gasped, his hands holding tight on to Jason like he would fall if he let go. “You’re here and you’re _alive._ ”

The bond between them sang with _Relief. Joy. Thankful. Joy._ And the fierceness of the happiness nearly made Jason collapse into his brother’s hold.

“How?” Dick said through tears, as he took Jason’s face in his hands, holding it like he was something precious.

“It’s a long story.” Jason answered, not willing to think about the unshakable anger that was still curled in his stomach. “I’ll tell you, but not now.”

Dick blinked but accepted it easily. He instead turned his attention to running his fingers through Jason’s hair and making a sound that was the closest approximation to a purr that a human could make.

Jason laughed, remembering how Dick had desperately tried to learn how to mimic the sound. He had spent weeks on the project, diving into learning how to be the best packmate he could be and copying demonic traits. As a human, he couldn’t do much, but he had tried and that meant more to Jason than he would ever admit.

Jason smiled to himself and answered back with his own rumble.

The bond between them lit up in a happy glow.

The moment was broken by Tim who squirmed between them and complained about being crushed.

Jason shifted, letting the impling crawl out of his lap, only to be snatched by Dick’s octopus arms. Tim looked like he was going to start fighting, but he stilled, eyes popping open in shock.

“Woah,” he whispered, disbelief clear in his eyes and he looked to Jason for explanation. “Is this…?”

Jason chuckled, relaxing as he watched the kid finally get a meal. He knew the feeling, the sudden completion that came with connecting to a human and getting their emotions reflecting between them. It was a glorious feeling, one that incubi chased for their whole lives. “Yeah, that’s feeding off of a human.”

Dick’s face twisted, looking between Jason and Tim in confusion. His arms tightened around the kid though, drawing him closer to his chest. “What? Tim? You’re an incubus? How did I not know that?”

“Apparently, the twerp didn’t know.” Jason muttered, shifting so that his thigh rested against Dick’s. It was a small enough moment that it might have been overlooked, but Dick saw it and responded by rested his weight on Jason’s shoulder.

His eyes were narrowed on Tim, deep in contemplation. “Is that something you just don’t know?” he asked, obviously not sure as he said it.

Jason shrugged. “Demons and humans start out pretty much the same. I just don’t get how the kid’s parents didn’t explain it to him.”

Tim shuddered between them and he dropped Jason’s gaze. “My parents are human.”

Ah, that explained a little bit. Demonic traits could skip generations. It was rare, but not entirely unheard of and wasn’t something concerning.

That still didn’t solve the main problem, though. How the hell an impling grew up without showing almost any of his demonic traits and so underdeveloped that he was still able to feed off another demon?

If anything, human parents should quicken the development process as the kid could feed off of them without inhibition.

So why in the fuck was the kid sitting here starved?

Unless…

“Your parents didn’t try to cure you, did they?” Jason growled, protective instincts flaring.

Cures. He fucking hated curers. Sick fucks that thought demonhood was an illness and something to be banished through a series of tortures labelled as treatments. People who were willing to put demons into a room and make them swallow holy water until they drowned to death.

Horror from Dick’s end of their bond flashed between them and Jason felt his own protective feelings matched.

“What? No, no, no.” Tim quickly denied and Jason’s fear gave way to relief. “They just… they didn’t ever tell me I could be a demon.”

And that still made no sense. “Yeah, but didn’t you feel it? Whenever your parents were there? You can’t exactly ignore how you respond to human emotions?”

Tim’s face shuddered closed and he tucked himself into an impossibly smaller ball. Dick met Jason’s eyes over the twerp’s head, and there was a deep sadness in them.

“Tim’s parents weren’t around,” he explained quietly. “They left him alone for most of his life.”

“Alone?” Jason felt the anger inside him bubble. Incubi weren’t meant to be alone, especially not implings.

“They went on trips,” Tim said and the words were ragged from where he was pressing his face into Dick’s shoulder. “For a couple months at a time. I would only see them a few weeks of the year.”

He turned, meeting Jason’s eyes and starting at the fury he saw in them. “It wasn’t bad though.” He insisted, sounding frantic. “They loved me. They left me all the food I needed and gave me anything I wanted. They were just busy with work.”

The rage that Jason had been so good about pushing down, suddenly came roaring forward and mixed with a fierce need to defend the kid. It was different than the anger that had urged him to break into the Titans Tower. This fury was possessive and protective and wanted to destroy whoever thought it was a good idea to leave their _incubus_ kid all alone in a house for months on end.

No wonder the kid was starved if he had never been told he could be a demon and his parents never gave him enough of a fuck to give the kid a goddamn hug.

“Tim,” Dick spoke, and his voice was wrecked and close to tears. “I didn’t know. God, if I would have known I would have hugged you forever.” Dick tightened his arms and Tim squeaked at the sudden pressure.

A worried part of him that had been frantically pacing in the back of his mind ever since it laid eyes on the starved impling, quieted down. The kid was in Dick’s arms, which was probably about the safest place he could be. He was going to be fed. He would be cared for from now on. He would have a pack.

“He means that too,” Jason said with an exasperated mumble. “If he sees you’re hungry, he will grab you, trap you and cuddle you on the couch for two hours.”

“Yep,” Dick chirped, squishing his cheek to Tim’s. “Anything for my demons.”

The words made Jason’s heart stutter with a feeling he couldn’t quite name. He had heard Dick say that before, back when he was younger and smaller and wasn’t convinced that anyone could care about him outside of being a sex slave.

Back when he thought his pack had died and he wasn’t going to be getting another.

He could have laughed at the sick irony of it.

The first time he lost his pack, they had died around him and he had survived.

The second time he lost a pack, he had died and they had survived without him.

He didn’t know what would happen if there was a third time.

“You two will never go hungry as long as I’m here,” Dick vowed with grave seriousness as he ruffled Tim’s hair. “I never give up the opportunity to cuddle.”

“Great.” Tim mumbled with a flat look. He wasn’t struggling in Dick’s hold, though.

“Better get used to it, baby bird.” Jason scoffed, getting up from the ground. His legs still felt like jelly underneath him and they thankfully held his weight. He did stumble a bit, though, and he desperately tried to cover it up.

He needed to get going. The bond that was being formed between him and Tim was too close to being solidified and the bond with Dick was rapidly becoming too much to handle. He had to cut his losses and go before he fooled himself into thinking he could actually be part of the pack again.

“Well, Timmy, you’re in Dick’s capable hands and I’m sure the Bats will be happy to play pack with a demon again. So have a nice life.”

Jason began to walk away, mentally ignoring the way his bonds were beginning to scream at him to turn around.

“Jason!” Dick yelped and Tim gave a high-pitched baby keen. He heard both of them scrambling to get up from the ground and Jason knew his clean getaway wasn’t going to happen.

“Where are you going?” Dick snapped, his arms clasping around his middle. He didn’t know if it was Dick’s arms that stopped him or his own desperate longing.

“I’m leaving,” Jason said, forcing himself to keep his voice level. Dick’s arms tightened over his stomach.

“Why?” his brother’s voice was breaking, “I just got you back. Why would you leave?”

“I can’t stay, Dick.” Jason whispered, not daring to look back. “I don’t belong here anymore.”

“And why not,” Dick snapped, “It isn’t like we are going to turn you away.”

Jason hesitated, not sure what to say to that. Because he didn’t know. He had come to kill Tim. He had fully intended to do it. The threats that he told Dick hadn’t been faked. He didn’t think he would ever have a pack again, let alone win the good graces of his previous one back.

Why would they want him? He was just a broken, husk of a demon.

“Jason,” Dick’s voice startled him out of his thoughts. His tone was pleading, and it made Jason want to bow his head and listen to his big brother. “You know that, right? You know that you don’t need to leave.”

Jason didn’t say anything and it was enough to answer Dick’s question. His brother made heart-breaking gasp and forced Jason to turn and look at him.

“Little Wing, we want you. We’ve missed you every day since you have died. There’s nothing that’s going to keep us from wanting you to come back home.”

“I can’t come back,” Jason snarled, hands fisting at his sides. “I’m broken. I can’t be pack again.”

Dick stood his ground, head tilted up and stubbornly meeting Jason’s gaze. “You’re not broken, and you never stopped being pack. I know you feel the bonds, just the same as I do.”

Jason startled, flinching back. “You feel the bonds?” That wasn’t possible. Dick was a human and Jason had _died_. The bonds had been cut and they should have dissolved from a human.

“Of course, Jaybird,” Dick’s face melted into affection. “You taught me how to feel them. That didn’t stop when you died.”

Jason was frozen, unable to figure out what he should do with that information. 

“I want to be a pack again,” Dick said, offering Jason the impossible with an easy smile. “Just come home, Jason.”

“Bruce will be so happy to see you,” Tim piped up from where he was off to the side. He stumbled to Dick, leaning into his brother’s side. “Anyways, I need someone to teach me how to do demon things.”

“Yeah,” Dick placed his hands on the impling’s shoulders. “Tim needs a demon sensei and I can’t think of anyone better.”

Jason gave him a flat look. “Need I remind you how I tried to kill baby bird earlier this evening?”

“But you didn’t.” Dick gave a confident smile. “By my view, all you actually did was bundle the kid up and give him the cuddles he desperately needed. Come on, Jay, let me bring you home.”

Jason felt Dick pull at the bond between them. It was weak, nearly imperceptible, but it was more than a human should be able to do at all. It was also irrefutable proof that Dick still held the bond.

The instincts in Jason screamed at him to just accept it and to find his place in the pack again. He needed this so much and Tim and Dick were just standing there offering it to him.

So why couldn’t he just accept it?

What was stopping him?

And no matter how much he tried to figure it out, he couldn’t think of a good reason.

Jason finally allowed himself to smile, coming close enough that Dick could reach out and grab him. The human’s grip with like a vice, hard enough that it made his ribs hurt. He didn’t mind the pain though, not with the flurry of happy emotions that peppered the air.

The human instantly accepted the connection, allowing Jason to feed off of him. It bounced the joy between them, amplifying the emotions up. Dick sighed contentedly, going boneless against Jason.

“I missed this,” he whispered. “I missed you so, so much Jason. I thought I’d never see you or feel this again and it broke me apart. I am so glad you came back to us.”

Jason’s heart beat in his chest, pounding against his ribs. He felt fuller than he ever had since he had been resurrected. His bond with Dick was full and vibrant. His bond with Tim was quickly growing into something fully formed. His bond with Bruce was faint, but heartachingly there.

 _His pack._ His instincts soothed the worried parts of him and promised him it would be okay.

All he needed to do was accept it.

Things were far from perfect. Jason still had that anger coiled inside him and it threatened to burst out at any moment, especially when he thought of Bruce. But there was Dick, who was so warm and welcoming, and Tim, just an impling trying to make his way in the world, and for right now it was enough.

That could be his pack again, giving him back the one thing he thought he had lost forever.

So Jason closed his eyes, feeling the bonds thrumming happily inside him, and let it all just happen.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> I'm not sure I'll do anything else in this au, but I'm bouncing some ideas around with maybe doing a one-shot about Jason teaching Tim demon things and Damian being a little shit. I'm not completely sure yet, so who knows. We will see. 
> 
> Update: I've now marked this work as part of a series because let's be honest, we all knew I was going to write more.
> 
> You can visit my tumblr at [ SalParadiseLost ](https://salparadiselost.tumblr.com) where I post tumblr things and general writing musings.
> 
> Please leave a kudos and comment. Flattery gets you everywhere.


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